₦airaland Forum

Mindlog:
Indeed born with a silver spoon and also made his own mark

Absolutely

Very interesting profile. Happy birthday Ben!

Ofege...Nice band....Murray bruce family/relations one of the finest from Bayelsa State.

69 years and some days ago, he was deep in the assh*le of a public servant, searching for the biggest turd to eat

Mindlog:
Indeed born with a silver spoon and also made his own mark

Aṣekunlowo defined.

BMB ba owo nile, o tun ṣe iṣẹ́ kun

Added no value to Nigeria as Senator. Happy birthday to him

Interesting thread


Does this Domino supermarkets have any relationship with Domino pizza chain though? Curious

Mr common sense

bennybuhari:
Added no value to Nigeria as Senator. Happy birthday to him

If any of our senators added value to our country since 1999, would we be a basket case people who brag about japa to improve other countries?

anonimi:
Neo-black Problem: Must Blacks Be Ruled by Whites in Order to Prosper?

In short, the neo-black dilemma may be framed as follows: is it better to live under white rule without political dignity but with basic life-sustaining standards for many;

or to live under black rule with illusory political dignity and without basic life- sustaining standards for the majority?
@
@
The path forward for Africa lies in cultivating higher and adequate levels of personal and communal agential integrity as well as full personal responsibility and productivity. Not to mention creativity (including epistemic creativity), productive justice (such as merit and freedom), harmony and reconciliation at local and international levels, and a proper domestication of capitalism and other related values and institutions.

Africa must stop wasting her time on dreams of socialism because it is a system of wealth distribution primarily. Whereas, capitalism is a system of wealth creation primarily, and wealth has to be produced before it can be distributed.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2024/10/12/neo-black-problem-must-blacks-be-ruled-by-whites-in-order-to-prosper/

Youngsage:
Interesting thread


Does this Domino supermarkets have any relationship with Domino pizza chain though? Curious

Not directly.

Domino Supermarket is different from Dominos Pizza. I should have posted a photo of their logos, so you'll see that they are different.

However, I recently noticed something very interesting. One of the former Domino Stores at Sabo, Yaba has been rented out to Domino's Pizza.

Happy Birthday the common sense senator

must you hate ?

Gandollar:
So we should fry beans?

naptu2:
Not directly.

Domino Supermarket is different from Dominos Pizza. I should have posted a photo of their logos, so you'll see that they are different.

However, I recently noticed something very interesting. One of the former Domino Stores at Sabo, Yaba has been rented out to Domino's Pizza.

Wow amazing! Thanks for the insight.

naptu2:
BENEDICT MURRAY-BRUCE OON (born February 18th, 1956).

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce was born on February 18th, 1956 to Mullighan and Margaret Murray-Bruce. Both his parents were mixed race (half Nigerian, from Akassa in Bayelsa State and half European).

Parents

Ben Bruce's father, William Mullighan Murray-Bruce was an executive with the United African Company (UAC). UAC is a successor of the Royal Niger Company and it was the biggest non-oil company in Nigeria up till the early 1990s.

UAC had many subsidiaries and Mullighan Murray-Bruce worked for Kingsway Stores, the largest chain of chemists, supermarkets and malls in Nigeria at the time.

The children were born in different cities across Nigeria because Mullighan Murray-Bruce was often transfered from city to city.

Upon retirement from Kingsway, he was given some of the underperforming branches as part of his retirement benefit and he founded his own supermarket chain, Domino Stores, using those branches.

Education

Ben Murray-Bruce attended Our Lady of Apostles Private Primary School, Yaba, Lagos from 1962 till 1968. He attended St Gregory's College, Ikoyi, Lagos for his secondary education from 1969 till 1973.

He was the Senior Prefect at St Gregory's College and here his organisational ability and interest in the entertainment industry shone through.

As Senior Prefect, Ben Murray-Bruce was also Chairman of the Harvest Planning Committee and they raised a record amount of ₦400, which was a lot of money in 1973.

The school chaplain, Reverend Father James O'Connel and Ben Murray-Bruce invested the money in musical equipment for the school band. It paid off hugely.

A junior student Melvin Ukachi had approached Ben and asked if he could do some practice with the band. Ben responded in the affirmative. Ukachi and his group later known as Ofege used the school band to wax their first album which sold over one million copies.

Ofege released songs that were well played all over Nigeria and indeed all over Africa and they did this while they were still secondary school students!

Ben Murray-Bruce was interested in entertainment from an early age, but his father didn't always approve of this. He said that his father came into his room one day and saw him dancing and threatened to break his legs if he ever caught him dancing like that again. He said




He attended Simpson College, Indianola Iowa (1975 – 1976); Iowa State University (1976 – 1977); and University of Southern California (1977 – 1979), where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing. He said that he easily got bored and he often changed schools whenever he got bored.

He received his big break in the entertainment industry by accident when he met Louis Smallwood while he was a student at the University of Southern California.

He was sitting at home in California one day when there was a knock on the door. He opened the door and discovered that the person that knocked had gotten the wrong address. However, they had an interesting conversation and Ben Bruce asked the man what he did for a living. The man was a teacher of child stars.

The law said that anyone under the age of 16 had to be educated, but there were child stars like Todd Bridges, Michael Jackson and Gary Coleman who could not attend school because of fame or their schedule. Louis Smallwood taught them at home or at the location where they were working. Mr Smallwood invited Ben Bruce to the set of Sanford and Son, where he was working at that time.

Ben Murray-Bruce got to know very many famous stars in the US entertainment scene of the 1970s through his friendship with Mr Smallwood. He became friends with Joe Jackson (Michael Jackson's father), Dick Griffey (founder of SOLAR Records), Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and other stars.

---

Photo 1) 7 year old Ben Murray-Bruce with Santa Claus (Father Christmas) a Kingsway

Photo 2) 1969-1973 set of St Gregory's College. In the picture are Ben Murray-Bruce, Olayemi Cardoso, Dr Bode Karunwi, John Wiltshire, Disun Holloway, Stephen Nsolo, Udo Egbo, Osula, Adedipe and Ekpe. Ben Murray-Bruce was the senior prefect.

Photo 3) Ben Murray-Bruce, who was Senior Prefect of St Gregory's College, presenting a present to the Principal of St Gregory's College, Chief Paul Amenechi, in 1973.

Photo 4) Senator Ben Murray-Bruce

As a Gregorian whose time overlapped with Senior Bruce I can say as always your research is bang on accurate.

He was a brilliant debater and won the Lagos state debating competition.

He was also a brilliant negotiator- persuading first ,"Paulo" the principal and then Mr Shosan ( with less success to allow QC girls attend our school parties with dimmed lights.

He stood up for school history including the "right" of Gregorians to have "Polite conversations'" with Holy Child girls pre and after Sunday chapel He ensured that the Holy Child boycott of Chapel did not spill over into a break down of relationships.

Although he played no sport unlike his predecessors, ( simply because he wasn't good at any) he left his mark on every aspect of Gregorian life. He had the trust of the principal, the house masters and the general population.

He represented the ethos of the Gregorian which was play - represent and study. This ethos is sadly shifting
to read first, second and third. The change in ethos only makes his time period at Gregs snd the huge success of the school in opera, music, sports and academic achievement all the more stellar. For those of us who left the school for English public schools after O levels - we had little problem slotting into English public school life.

Well written Naptu, you are a genius. Many of us only remain on Nairaland because of your writings.

I can spot L-R in the second picture - Paulo (Principal) seniors Bruce, Karunwi and Benson.

Pro Fide et Scienta and a "Grand Old School to play
for".

Correction. *Mrs not Mr Shosan was Principal at Queens College. The only principal that could call our Paulo by his first name of Paul!

naptu2:
BENEDICT MURRAY-BRUCE OON (born February 18th, 1956).

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce was born on February 18th, 1956 to Mullighan and Margaret Murray-Bruce. Both his parents were mixed race (half Nigerian, from Akassa in Bayelsa State and half European).

Parents

Ben Bruce's father, William Mullighan Murray-Bruce was an executive with the United African Company (UAC). UAC is a successor of the Royal Niger Company and it was the biggest non-oil company in Nigeria up till the early 1990s.

UAC had many subsidiaries and Mullighan Murray-Bruce worked for Kingsway Stores, the largest chain of chemists, supermarkets and malls in Nigeria at the time.

The children were born in different cities across Nigeria because Mullighan Murray-Bruce was often transfered from city to city.

Upon retirement from Kingsway, he was given some of the underperforming branches as part of his retirement benefit and he founded his own supermarket chain, Domino Stores, using those branches.

Education

Ben Murray-Bruce attended Our Lady of Apostles Private Primary School, Yaba, Lagos from 1962 till 1968. He attended St Gregory's College, Ikoyi, Lagos for his secondary education from 1969 till 1973.

He was the Senior Prefect at St Gregory's College and here his organisational ability and interest in the entertainment industry shone through.

As Senior Prefect, Ben Murray-Bruce was also Chairman of the Harvest Planning Committee and they raised a record amount of ₦400, which was a lot of money in 1973.

The school chaplain, Reverend Father James O'Connel and Ben Murray-Bruce invested the money in musical equipment for the school band. It paid off hugely.

A junior student Melvin Ukachi had approached Ben and asked if he could do some practice with the band. Ben responded in the affirmative. Ukachi and his group later known as Ofege used the school band to wax their first album which sold over one million copies.

Ofege released songs that were well played all over Nigeria and indeed all over Africa and they did this while they were still secondary school students!

Ben Murray-Bruce was interested in entertainment from an early age, but his father didn't always approve of this. He said that his father came into his room one day and saw him dancing and threatened to break his legs if he ever caught him dancing like that again. He said




He attended Simpson College, Indianola Iowa (1975 – 1976); Iowa State University (1976 – 1977); and University of Southern California (1977 – 1979), where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing. He said that he easily got bored and he often changed schools whenever he got bored.

He received his big break in the entertainment industry by accident when he met Louis Smallwood while he was a student at the University of Southern California.

He was sitting at home in California one day when there was a knock on the door. He opened the door and discovered that the person that knocked had gotten the wrong address. However, they had an interesting conversation and Ben Bruce asked the man what he did for a living. The man was a teacher of child stars.

The law said that anyone under the age of 16 had to be educated, but there were child stars like Todd Bridges, Michael Jackson and Gary Coleman who could not attend school because of fame or their schedule. Louis Smallwood taught them at home or at the location where they were working. Mr Smallwood invited Ben Bruce to the set of Sanford and Son, where he was working at that time.

Ben Murray-Bruce got to know very many famous stars in the US entertainment scene of the 1970s through his friendship with Mr Smallwood. He became friends with Joe Jackson (Michael Jackson's father), Dick Griffey (founder of SOLAR Records), Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and other stars.

---

Photo 1) 7 year old Ben Murray-Bruce with Santa Claus (Father Christmas) a Kingsway

Photo 2) 1969-1973 set of St Gregory's College. In the picture are Ben Murray-Bruce, Olayemi Cardoso, Dr Bode Karunwi, John Wiltshire, Disun Holloway, Stephen Nsolo, Udo Egbo, Osula, Adedipe and Ekpe. Ben Murray-Bruce was the senior prefect.

Photo 3) Ben Murray-Bruce, who was Senior Prefect of St Gregory's College, presenting a present to the Principal of St Gregory's College, Chief Paul Amenechi, in 1973.

Photo 4) Senator Ben Murray-Bruce

Thunder fire him join with his generation🖐

naptu2:
BENEDICT MURRAY-BRUCE OON (born February 18th, 1956).

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce was born on February 18th, 1956 to Mullighan and Margaret Murray-Bruce. Both his parents were mixed race (half Nigerian, from Akassa in Bayelsa State and half European).

Parents

Ben Bruce's father, William Mullighan Murray-Bruce was an executive with the United African Company (UAC). UAC is a successor of the Royal Niger Company and it was the biggest non-oil company in Nigeria up till the early 1990s.

UAC had many subsidiaries and Mullighan Murray-Bruce worked for Kingsway Stores, the largest chain of chemists, supermarkets and malls in Nigeria at the time.

The children were born in different cities across Nigeria because Mullighan Murray-Bruce was often transfered from city to city.

Upon retirement from Kingsway, he was given some of the underperforming branches as part of his retirement benefit and he founded his own supermarket chain, Domino Stores, using those branches.

Education

Ben Murray-Bruce attended Our Lady of Apostles Private Primary School, Yaba, Lagos from 1962 till 1968. He attended St Gregory's College, Ikoyi, Lagos for his secondary education from 1969 till 1973.

He was the Senior Prefect at St Gregory's College and here his organisational ability and interest in the entertainment industry shone through.

As Senior Prefect, Ben Murray-Bruce was also Chairman of the Harvest Planning Committee and they raised a record amount of ₦400, which was a lot of money in 1973.

The school chaplain, Reverend Father James O'Connel and Ben Murray-Bruce invested the money in musical equipment for the school band. It paid off hugely.

A junior student Melvin Ukachi had approached Ben and asked if he could do some practice with the band. Ben responded in the affirmative. Ukachi and his group later known as Ofege used the school band to wax their first album which sold over one million copies.

Ofege released songs that were well played all over Nigeria and indeed all over Africa and they did this while they were still secondary school students!

Ben Murray-Bruce was interested in entertainment from an early age, but his father didn't always approve of this. He said that his father came into his room one day and saw him dancing and threatened to break his legs if he ever caught him dancing like that again. He said




He attended Simpson College, Indianola Iowa (1975 – 1976); Iowa State University (1976 – 1977); and University of Southern California (1977 – 1979), where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing. He said that he easily got bored and he often changed schools whenever he got bored.

He received his big break in the entertainment industry by accident when he met Louis Smallwood while he was a student at the University of Southern California.

He was sitting at home in California one day when there was a knock on the door. He opened the door and discovered that the person that knocked had gotten the wrong address. However, they had an interesting conversation and Ben Bruce asked the man what he did for a living. The man was a teacher of child stars.

The law said that anyone under the age of 16 had to be educated, but there were child stars like Todd Bridges, Michael Jackson and Gary Coleman who could not attend school because of fame or their schedule. Louis Smallwood taught them at home or at the location where they were working. Mr Smallwood invited Ben Bruce to the set of Sanford and Son, where he was working at that time.

Ben Murray-Bruce got to know very many famous stars in the US entertainment scene of the 1970s through his friendship with Mr Smallwood. He became friends with Joe Jackson (Michael Jackson's father), Dick Griffey (founder of SOLAR Records), Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and other stars.

---

Photo 1) 7 year old Ben Murray-Bruce with Santa Claus (Father Christmas) a Kingsway

Photo 2) 1969-1973 set of St Gregory's College. In the picture are Ben Murray-Bruce, Olayemi Cardoso, Dr Bode Karunwi, John Wiltshire, Disun Holloway, Stephen Nsolo, Udo Egbo, Osula, Adedipe and Ekpe. Ben Murray-Bruce was the senior prefect.

Photo 3) Ben Murray-Bruce, who was Senior Prefect of St Gregory's College, presenting a present to the Principal of St Gregory's College, Chief Paul Amenechi, in 1973.

Photo 4) Senator Ben Murray-Bruce

Happy birthday

Confused politician

koladata:
must you hate ?

Is it your hate?

He's someone's father, you don't have to hate.

Gandollar:
Is it your hate?

koladata:
He's someone's father, you don't have to hate.

Take your sermon and shove it where the sun don't shine.

naptu2:
BENEDICT MURRAY-BRUCE OON (born February 18th, 1956).

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce was born on February 18th, 1956 to Mullighan and Margaret Murray-Bruce. Both his parents were mixed race (half Nigerian, from Akassa in Bayelsa State and half European).

Parents

Ben Bruce's father, William Mullighan Murray-Bruce was an executive with the United African Company (UAC). UAC is a successor of the Royal Niger Company and it was the biggest non-oil company in Nigeria up till the early 1990s.

UAC had many subsidiaries and Mullighan Murray-Bruce worked for Kingsway Stores, the largest chain of chemists, supermarkets and malls in Nigeria at the time.

Photo 4) Senator Ben Murray-Bruce

naptu2 you did a great job on this expose. You deserve something good from the Murray-Bruce for the research efforts.

Greenlandz:
Happy birthday Ben Murray Bruce and enjoy your own share of USAID funding 🍾🍷

You should translate this for all to understand

Happy birthday sir... Long Life and prosperity with total inner peace of mind 🙏🙏🙏.... What a man of class

Wow!
So safe to say, this guy made our Nigerian television viewing experience pleasurable during our childhood. I remember looking forward to Saturdays to watch the above listed cartoons. NTA and the likes only used to show stuff like sesame Street and muppet babies and Co. Between the hours of 4-6pm Monday to Friday. The man try gan.

Did anyone else notice how these so called elites of today are like a click? Like the first click of St Greg's Boys and Vivian fowler girls who enjoyed free university education, joined cultist and activism back then. Na them dey rule us till today. Same familiar names.

Why listing out his achievements like this though? As if it's a death eulogy. He is still Alive and well and by God's grace will do many more great stuff. Or are we gonna be reading this epistle every year on his birthday?

Happy birthday to a great man.

NAPTU threads are always interesting.

BreconHills:
As a Gregorian whose time overlapped with Senior Bruce I can say as always your research is bang on accurate.

He was a brilliant debater and won the Lagos state debating competition.

He was also a brilliant negotiator- persuading first ,"Paulo" the principal and then Mr Shosan ( with less success to allow QC girls attend our school parties with dimmed lights.

He stood up for school history including the "right" of Gregorians to have "Polite conversations'" with Holy Child girls pre and after Sunday chapel He ensured that the Holy Child boycott of Chapel did not spill over into a break down of relationships.

Although he played no sport unlike his predecessors, ( simply because he wasn't good at any) he left his mark on every aspect of Gregorian life. He had the trust of the principal, the house masters and the general population.

He represented the ethos of the Gregorian which was play - represent and study. This ethos is sadly shifting
to read first, second and third. The change in ethos only makes his time period at Gregs snd the huge success of the school in opera, music, sports and academic achievement all the more stellar. For those of us who left the school for English public schools after O levels - we had little problem slotting into English public school life.

Well written Naptu, you are a genius. Many of us only remain on Nairaland because of your writings.

I can spot L-R in the second picture - Paulo (Principal) seniors Bruce, Karunwi and Benson.

Pro Fide et Scienta and a "Grand Old School to play
for".

Correction. *Mrs not Mr Shosan was Principal at Queens College. The only principal that could call our Paulo by his first name of Paul!

Thank you very much.

(Mrs Sosan was actually principal of Holy Child College (1973-1985).

naptu2:
Thank you very much.

(Mrs Sosan was actually principal of Holy Child College (1973-1985).

The Olayemi Cardoso you referred to, is it our current CBN Gov?

EmperorCaesar:
The Olayemi Cardoso you referred to, is it our current CBN Gov?

Yes.

naptu2:
Thank you very much.

(Mrs Sosan was actually principal of Holy Child College (1973-1985).

Oh i got my wires crossed. Senior moment

Just checked. Would have been Mrs Coker in my day..

A great man!

The two main Domino supermarkets were on opposite sides of the road at the junction at Sabo, Yaba (those were the only Domino Stores outlets that I knew).

One was on Herbert Macaulay Way and the other was on Commercial Avenue.

In fact, Ben Murray-Bruce used the building at Commercial Avenue as his office in the old days. Check promotional materials for his concerts, pageants and TV productions in the 1980s and 1990s and you'll see that the contact address was on Commercial Avenue, Sabo, Yaba. Even after he created Rhythm FM and Silverbird TV, they still used that address as one of their contact addresses.

The outlet on Herbert Macaulay Way also had a Small World outlet beside it.

That store on Herbert Macaulay Way has been rented out to Domino's Pizza and people still call the area Domino Bus Stop.

I am not sure if the store on Commercial Avenue still functions.

The Domino Group built a mall on Commercial Avenue, not far from the old Domino Store. It's called the E Center. It contains Ozone Cinemas, stores, offices and games and entertainment centers.

Photo 1) Domino Store logo.

Photo 2) E Center.

Soul Train was a very popular Black American music programme in the 1970s and '80s.

It featured people dancing to the latest Black American music. They also had guest artistes who performed their songs live. All the biggest stars of the 1970s and '80s, including The Jacksons, The Whispers, Shalamar, Ollie and Jerry, Tina Turner, etc performed on Soul Train.

Jeffrey Daniel was a very good Soul Train dancer. He became an original member of Shalamar. He taught Michael Jackson how to do the back slide and then Michael converted it into the moonwalk.

Jeffrey Daniel came to Nigeria to perform with Shalamar many times in the early 1980s. They were brought to Nigeria by Silverbird.


He relocated to Nigeria in the 2010s. He became a judge on Pepsi Nigerian Idol. He married a Nigerian woman and they have a child.